Well, its Monday. The beginning of a brand new week. Since I have the typical schedule of a flight instructor, all the days run together. I don’t know a Monday from a Saturday much anymore.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I am scheduled to build some hours in a BE76 Duchess. The exact airplane pictured above. I am hopeing to take my MEI checkride by the end of next week. We’ll see how the schedules go. I really want to finish this thing up and get moving towards building that coveted multiengine time.

If the opportunity to fly in the Aztec pans out for me, then I could potentially be about 800 total time and 50 multi time within the next 2-3 monhs. That is pretty decent for getting aboard a regional carrier.

Its a tough decision to make – as to WHEN exactly to make the jump. I am really enjoying what I am doing right now, and honestly the money is about the same considering the abismal entry level salaries in the airlines. I am having a hell of a lot more fun doing what I am doing. Plus, I am the top dog. People look up to me for answers, and what I say to students regarding flying is like gospel. Its sort of nice to be “up here” for a little while. Because when I make that jump, I am going to become just another striped sleeve pile of mung for a while until I climb up the ranks. Also, there is something to be said for staying in my current position until I am trully tired of it. Right now, I still love going to work and flying around in the Cessna and teaching ground school, etc. I am learning so much just by teaching this stuff, and GA is really where my heart is anyway. Flying the jets is just a way to make more money – that is what jets are used for – business.

If I made the jump at the earliest time, then I could pull out of the single engine piston world and start sitting on a real flight deck, building turbine time, and actually climbing up the ranks. I would be washing my hands of the small town flight school feel where I am more or less free to do what I want and stepping back into the corporate world where I am just a number and a body with which management can use to fill schedule gaps.

Its a tough call.

I will very likely stay where I am until at least September or October. I will have about 1000 total time, and hopefully about 100 multiengine, we’ll see. And, likely, I will be ready to move on. That is the key. I know myself well enough to know that there will come a time where I come to the realization that I am finished being a full time flight instructor and will be naturally ready to move on. I think that will be the time to make the switch.

Meanwhile, I’ve got 3 flights today, probably 3 or 4 hours worth. Tomorrow is pretty light, but there is some flying on the docket. Then Wednesday and Thursday are the multiengine days. Hopefully, I can build 8 or so hours of time this week and really fly the pants off of that plane. Shoot landings, do single engine ops, etc. I’d love to solo it once or twice as well if their insurance will allow me – it’d build up my confidence in twins. I’ve never soloed a twin before.

Then next week, I’ll plan on the MEI checkride. I hope I can finish it by Sun N Fun. That’d be great!!! That is the goal!!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 9:55 am and is filed under Career Advancement, Day to Day Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.